e-payment mandatory for income taxes: NBR

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has made electronic payment mandatory for all sorts of income taxes by scrapping the provision of payment through pay order and manual treasury challan.

The move aims to ensure real-time receipt and improve the government’s overall cash flow, according to tax administration officials.

Until now, taxpayers had to pay up to Tk 5,00,000 through automated challan (A-Challan) or e-payment.

From now on, any amount of tax has to be deposited to the state treasury through electronic means that came into effect from March 23, 2023, according to a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) of the NBR, signed by Income tax member Sams Uddin Ahmed, issued on Thursday,

However, the revenue board will review the SRO if any objection or recommendation is made in this regard within the next 15 working days.

Through the SRO, the NBR has replaced provisions in the Income Tax Ordinance-1984 on ‘manner’ and ‘mode’ of tax payment by assesses and tax deducted at source.

As per amendments, taxpayers have to pay tax through automated challan or through electronic payment from now on as per specified rules of the NBR.

The tax administration took the decision just two months before the upcoming budget to meet a condition of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) against a $2.0 billion loan and in line with a condition by multilateral lenders that all tax payments have to be done electronically, NBR official concerns said.